Who was Galen and what did he accomplish?

Answer 1

He advanced the study of anatomy and physiology by careful dissection and observation. Although not in need of money (he had a private income) he accepted the lowly position of doctor to a gladiatorial school because of the unparalleled opportunities it gave for human anatomical study.

He was a skilled surgeon, capable of operations well beyond the normal scope of his contemporaries.

He was an accomplished philosopher and logician.

He left a huge mass of writing behind, detailing his achievements and his discoveries. He became famous in his own day to the point where unscrupulous publishers were adding his name to spurious textbooks and he had to publish a leaflet on his own writings to sort it out.

Although he made mistakes, he did much splendid work including finding out by actual experiment what some dubious and often misinterpreted passages in Hippocrates meant.

It is not often that one finds academic scrupulousness and practical skill in the same man - and to such an outstanding extent. If one believes in such things, he must be one of the patron saints of scientific medicine.